


Underestimation

by DarkMalady



Category: The Avengers (2012), The Avengers - Ambiguous Fandom
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, First Person, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-07-02
Updated: 2013-07-02
Packaged: 2017-12-16 20:50:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 823
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/866471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DarkMalady/pseuds/DarkMalady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first thing I learned with the circus was never to underestimate anyone.</p>
<p>As my eyesight goes blurry and the world darkens, I realize. I did the one thing I told myself I would never do.<br/>I underestimated him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Underestimation

The first thing I learned with the circus was never to underestimate anyone. 

Natasha and I had expanded this belief since Budapest.

The Avengers served to solidify this. 

But then New York happened. 

It had been over a year since they got Bruce. He was too goddamned noticeable with his anger problems.

They got to Steve a month after that, they lured him out with a dozen screaming children and a promise they would spare the kids if he gave himself up. I always knew that Cap would go out trying to save people he couldn’t. They killed him and the kids anyways. Just to make a point.

Nat went next, just three months ago. She held out longer, kept her head down, stuck to the shadows. But there’s only so long you can hide from a master of shadows and the one in control of all the cameras on the planet.

Thor was the first to go, we found out later. He had been MIA for five months before the Hulk fiasco. Everyone assumed that he had gone back to Asgard. That’s what Tony had told the rest of the Avengers, and we believed him like idiots. 

I’m the last. I ran as far and as fast as I could the minute they killed Bruce. I wasn’t about the stick around and wait for my turn at the guillotine.

Funnily enough before this, red had always been a comforting color for me. The burgundy of Cap’s gloves or Thor’s crimson cape: Tony’s hot rod armor and Nat’s auburn hair: the blood of my enemies on the ground or the rings on my favorite bull’s-eye in the shooting range.

Though I knew the minute that light on the alarm panel of the cabin had started blinking, the red light flashing across my eyes in the dark, that my life could be counted in hours, minutes even. I had broken in thinking it was an easy target, thinking I could find some food and continue moving, but no food was worth this: worth my life.

Since that red omen, I’ve been running. 

I know, from what I’ve seen on my rare trips into civilization, that they monitor everything. They’ve managed to eliminate all crime, no matter how big or small, but it comes with a price. They rule everything, with technology and magic and fear.

I can hear the choppers closing in. The shock troops aren’t what I’m worried about. 

The jet boots I can hear underneath the din of the choppers, now that has me worried. They’ve found me.

I had hoped they would think it just a simple burglary, not something for the rulers of the New World Order to worry about, but my luck has sucked for a while now.

As I turn to look back at the sky, a flash of green in the corner of my eye has me stopping dead in my tracks, turning towards the self-appointed King of Migard, horns curving wickedly towards a blood red sky. Behind me, jet boots cut out and a metal encased man stands from his crouched landing. 

No longer the jaunty hot rod red and gold I remember, Tony’s suit is all silver and green and Tesseract blue. Lightning seemingly dances along the surface of the suit, belaying its otherworldly engineering. 

The smirking demigod in front of me looks on as Tony approaches me. I don’t have time to even reach into my quiver for an arrow before his hand is at my throat, my fingers scrabbling for purchase on the slippery surfaces of the suit, hoping to buy me some mere seconds. The lightening is sizzling through my bones, frying my nerves and keeping me complacent in the face of my own death. 

I don’t know what happened that afternoon in Tony’s penthouse between him and Loki, no one does, not even JARVIS. Tony wiped him the day after the invasion, not that anyone else knew that until it was too late.

Somehow, between Tony’s unnaturally blue eyes, stolen Extremis injection and Loki’s new bionics armor; they had managed to peacefully conquer the entire globe. An unholy meeting of man, god, magick and machine. 

I try pleading with my eyes, looking with whatever shred of remaining hope I have left into the cold blue eyes of the Ironman suit. 

I’m startled by the tinny-sounding laughter that fills the woods, becoming clearer when Tony lifts the faceplate. I haven’t been this close to Tony since Bruce. I’d never had the chance to inspect his eyes, to search out the witchlight I just knew was hiding behind his iris’. 

I’m truly terrified by what I see.

There’s no blue. There is no BLUE hiding in Tony’s eyes. I thought Loki was behind everything, but it wasn’t. 

As my eyesight goes blurry and the world darkens, I realize. I did the one thing I told myself I would never do.

I underestimated him.

**Author's Note:**

> Hey Guys! So this is my first posted work on AO3. I hope you enjoy. I do have some other things in the pipeline, but I don't know when I'll be able to get around to editing and posting, so expect nothing! Ehehehehe. Anyways, reviews always welcome! 
> 
> Cheers!  
> ~MoD


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